Japan, the Yanagi residence.
Upon receiving the news that her brother and sister-in-law had died in a car accident, Kaoriko Yanagi was hit by a wave of dizziness and swayed, nearly collapsing. Her husband, Yanagi Koushouu, reached out and caught her just in time.
"A-Yu, I don't have a brother anymore."
Asuka Shunta and Kaoriko Yanagi had spent their childhoods in the same orphanage. The two had been extremely close, surviving the most painful days of their youth together, and had always referred to each other as brother and sister.
Although they grew up, went their separate ways, and started their own families, both households remained on wonderful terms—closer than actual blood relatives. Every summer vacation, they would gather for a short reunion, and naturally, the children of both families grew up deeply attached to one another.
Kaoriko wept uncontrollably. Heartbroken, Yanagi Koushouu pulled her into his arms, gently patting her back to comfort her. "Shunta and the others wouldn't want to see you this upset up in heaven. So let's cry just this once, pour out all our sadness, and then we'll stop crying, okay?"
"Mhm..."
Kaoriko buried her face in her husband's neck, tears streaming down one by one, letting out muffled sobs as her hands gripped tightly onto his back, as if trying to draw some strength from him.
"Youyou... Youyou is still in the United States. I have to go get her."
Suddenly, she remembered her most cherished little niece, Asuka Youyou.
The news of Brother Asuka's death had completely shattered her composure; she hadn't even thought of Youyou until this moment. She couldn't bear to imagine how devastating it must be for the child, alone in a foreign country with no one to turn to, facing the sudden loss of both parents.
"I'll buy the tickets right now."
They caught a flight to the United States that very day, leaving Yanagi's parents with only a quick text message to explain things roughly.
Meanwhile, Renji Yanagi was in the middle of practice when the news arrived. The tennis racket slipped straight from his grip, and his usually closed eyes flew wide open.
The Rikkaidai strategist, always as serene and poised as a lotus, found himself helplessly collapsing onto the ground, staring at the text message in utter disbelief.
How could this be...
How could Uncle Asuka and his wife be gone just like that?
And what about her...
The moment he pictured the sweet-smelling, doll-like girl from his memories—now entirely helpless and alone, facing the reality of losing both parents—his heart ached as though it were breaking into pieces.
Renji wanted nothing more than to instantly teleport to the girl's side, but he couldn't; all he could do was wait for his parents to bring her home.
"Renji, what's wrong?"
His teammate's concerned voice echoed in his ears, but his throat felt too dry and tight to utter a single word.
"I..."
The moment Kaoriko arrived in the United States, she rushed without a moment's rest to find Asuka Youyou.
"My poor Youyou, come live with your auntie from now on. Let's go home together!" Kaoriko wiped her tears as she pulled her niece tightly into her embrace.
Why was fate so cruel? Brother Asuka and Aya were such wonderful people; a single car accident had taken both their lives, leaving Youyou all alone in the world with no one to lean on.
No one could ever know whether tomorrow or tragedy would arrive first.
But it didn't matter. She would love and protect Youyou with all her heart. As long as she drew breath, she would never let Youyou suffer even the slightest grievance.
With a heart full of tenderness, Kaoriko gently stroked the young girl's hair.
"Your brother is waiting for us at home. Do you remember Brother Renji? I remember you used to love playing with him when you were little."
Youyou's emotional state was deeply alarming; Kaoriko had been terrified the moment she first saw her.
When they met last year, the little girl had been plump and rosy, with bright, sparkling eyes full of spirit, a pair of cherry-red lips, and a sweet smile plastered across her delicate, pretty face. She had worn a pink-and-white Lolita dress, her light-brown, long curly hair tied into twin tails with ribbons, making her look bright and cheerful like a little sun.
And now...
Her eyes were dull and hollow, her hair matted and plastered across her face. She had stopped wearing her favorite little dresses, and because she had spent so long kneeling, the fabric of her thin pants was worn right through.
The baby fat on her face had vanished entirely. She wouldn't speak; she just stared blankly at her parents' memorial portraits, enveloped in an aura of utter lifelessness.
People of the same age shared a common language; hopefully, once they returned home, Renji would be able to comfort Youyou and help her find her way back to being the joyful little angel she used to be.
Renji... Brother?
An image flashed through her mind of an eccentric boy with a bob haircut who could walk with his eyes closed.
"I remember."
The corners of Asuka Youyou's mouth twitched into the faintest of smiles, yet the depths of her striking deep-pink eyes remained shrouded in a faint, unbroken mist, heavy with heartbreaking sorrow.
Kaoriko had come to the United States with her husband, Yanagi Koushouu. The two of them had made the trip to handle the funeral arrangements for the Asuka couple and bring their little niece, Asuka Youyou, back to Japan to care for her.
They had already spent a week in America, and everything had been settled. Under their attentive care, Youyou—who had been on the verge of a total breakdown—had shown significant emotional improvement.
At least she no longer spent every day weeping, moving about like a hollow-eyed doll devoid of any vitality.
The thought sent a pang of tightness through Kaoriko's heart. She didn't dare to imagine what would have happened if she had arrived even a step later—they might not have been able to save Brother Asuka's only remaining bloodline.
"The plane is here, let's go."
Yanagi Koushouu took the suitcases from both aunt and niece with one hand, then bent down and scooped the little girl right up into his arms.
"Ah!"
The girl let out a soft gasp, completely caught off guard when her usually gentle and refined uncle suddenly picked her up without a word of warning.
She considered herself a mature adult capable of standing on her own two feet, yet here she was, being carried like a little kid.
Asuka Youyou's face flushed brilliant crimson, heat radiating from her cheeks in waves until she looked like a thoroughly ripened little tomato. The mist in her eyes vanished into thin air, leaving behind only the sweet, honey-toned warmth of her true nature.
Truly, when someone was dying of social embarrassment, every trace of sorrow completely vanished from their mind.
"Uncle, put me down, please. I can walk by myself."
She brushed against Yanagi Koushouu's shoulder, trying to slide back down.
Only to be promptly pressed back into place by Kaoriko.
"Oh, come on, just let your uncle carry you, don't be shy. Look around you—aren't kids your age all being carried?"
Besides, she was terrified that feather-light little body of hers probably weighed less than an ordinary eight- or nine-year-old foreign child.
She was honestly afraid Youyou would take one step and straight-up pass out.
Out of fear that the girl would instantly bristle, Kaoriko wisely swallowed the rest of her thoughts.
"That's right, Youyou. I can walk much faster carrying you," Yanagi Koushouu said with a squint, a gentle smile playing at the corners of his mouth, before taking a stride forward with his long legs.
With that upright, gentlemanly composure of his, nobody would ever guess he had just implied Asuka Youyou had short legs.
Ah, how could she have forgotten? This uncle of hers was a master of sweet-on-the-outside, dark-on-the-inside deception; as serene as he looked on the surface, he was an absolute black-bellied old fox underneath.
Thinking about her short legs made her almost want to cry.
She was the shortest person in her entire family. Her dad stood at a towering one-ninety centimeters, a muscular powerhouse with an eight-pack. Her mom was a one-seventy-centimeter queen with long legs.
Yet somehow, she had ended up hovering right around one-sixty centimeters, completely squandering her parents' excellent genetic lottery.
Add in the fact that her frame was naturally more slender than most girls', and it made her look even smaller and thinner. Her friends constantly picked her up and carried her around like a porcelain doll.
Compared to those tall, sturdy Americans, she really wasn't much bigger than an eight- or nine-year-old child being carried in her parents' arms.
She cast a stealthy, sideways glance at her dear aunt, believing her covert observation to be entirely unnoticeable, and swallowed hard.
Those legs were so long they practically put her entire life to shame. By her rough estimate, her aunt was even taller than her mother.
She looked down at her own newly elevated vantage point.
Hah~
So what if he was one-eighty-eight? Her uncle wasn't even that tall.
She thought fiercely to herself.
Didn't people always say Japanese people were short? Why were all the members of this family so freakishly tall, as if they'd been injected with growth hormones?
Since things had turned out this way, she decided she might as well settle comfortably against Yanagi Koushouu's shoulder and chat with Kaoriko.
As the plane streaked across the sky, Asuka Youyou left behind the place she had called home for many years.